*LAMBDA Literary Award Finalist*
**
Alternating between past and present, a forbidden love story blooms in
the sexually oppressive early-1960's in T. Greenwood's shimmering,
haunting novel that explores the nature of memory, aging, feminism,
lust, and most importantly, love in a tumultuous era.**
In this deeply tender novel, acclaimed novelist T. Greenwood moves
deftly between the past and present to create a poignant and wonderfully
moving story of friendship, the resonance of memories, and the love that
keeps us afloat.
In 1960, Billie Valentine is a young housewife living in a sleepy
Massachusetts suburb, treading water in a dull marriage and caring for
two adopted daughters. Summers spent with the girls at their lakeside
camp in Vermont are her one escape--from her husband's demands, from
days consumed by household drudgery, and from the nagging suspicion that
life was supposed to hold something different.
Then a new family moves in across the street. Ted and Eva Wilson have
three children and a fourth on the way, and their arrival reignites
long-buried feelings in Billie. The relationship that deepens between
the two women offers a solace Billie has never known, until their secret
is revealed and both families are wrenched apart in the tragic
aftermath.
Fifty years later, Ted and Eva's son, Johnny, contacts an elderly but
still spry Billie, entreating her to return east to meet with him. Once
there, Billie finally learns the surprising truth about what was lost,
and what still remains, of those joyful, momentous summers.
